What scares Miner Birds? Surely there must be something...

[Finchy]

Hi

I am so over having Miner Birds dive-bombing my aviary. They never, ever catch any finches but the [bleep]ers keep trying every few minutes of every [bleep]ing day. Surely there must be something that will scare them off and give my birdies a break?? Or at least put them off. What works?

BTW, these things don't work:
- Realistic rubber snakes in various colours
- Cat silhouettes with sparkly eyes

[branchez]

Try lead at high velocity.

[Niki_K]

I'll loan you my cocker spaniel- the second anything thinks about taking a look around my yard or aviaries, he's out there ready to kill it.

[matcho]

Finchy,
Are you referring to Indian Mynas or the Australian Noisy Miners? Easy way to tell is the Indians are dark brown and the Ozzies are grey and usually hang in packs. I have a couple of pairs of the Indians hanging around home and cause me no grief whatsoever but the Ozzies are a different kettle of fish. They are very territorial and wait for me to take down the covers every day and even have had them attack? me whilst feeding each morning. Admittedly they are not predatory like butcherbirds etc they cause a real scare factor. Have used the cat thingys and also the owl lookalikes but this attracts them more because of their territoriality. Trust me it doesn't scare them. They just call in more recruits and their calling scares the bejesus out of your birds. Easiest thing is to do (which I am going to do) is to have a drop down of bead chain about 50cms or so from your wire at 20cm apart. I reckon one or two times hitting it they won't return. Seems over the top, I know, because it only happens in their breeding season but I have birds all year round. If it works I will report.

[Finchy]

Definitely the Aussies by that description. Those are the ones!

I look forward to your experimental results. Not sure I'd do the same, but interesting idea.

[Tiaris]

Double wire or an enclosed walkway is the best permanent solution to this & other predator problems.

[Finchy]

True.

Luckily nothing seems to actually get the finches, and Miners are nectar eaters after all. However it's the Miners' dive-bombing and aggressive displays, designed specifically to scare other birds out of their territory, that are the problem. Even though the finches are already physically safe, this behaviour is extremely stressful for them. I don't expect that double wire would change the behaviour. The [bleep]ers are just fearless. Nothing fazes them.

I have toyed with stringing taught fishing line above and around the top edges of the aviary, to at least make landing difficult, but I'm not sure how to erect this simply. Any thoughts? Is it worth trying?

[Tiaris]

I have seen Noisy Miners kill wild fledgling Redbrows and Superb Wrens. They will do the same to your birds if provided the opportunity. I stand by my last post.

[COUNTRY CAPITAL]

everybody seems to have a resident population of noisy miners....
my solution is to give my finches some cover to retreat to. growing trees/bushes in the flights or plenty of brush in the shelters.
along with "my" noisy miners i have plenty of wild zebras and superb wrens, pardalotes,thornbills etc that simply retreat to cover until the miners have asserted there authority.
they seem to co-exist just fine if they have somewhere to hide.
i'm sure they would dispatch the small birds if they could catch them but somehow they all proliferate.

[jusdeb]

boom chucka lucka and its bye bye birdy